The Michael Knowles Show - Trump Bombs Iran: Michael Knowles Instant REACTION

Episode Date: June 22, 2025

President Trump has just announced a full-scale, successful bombing campaign on Iran’s nuclear facilities, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan. Michael Knowles gives his unfiltered reaction to on...e of the most consequential military moves in modern history. What does this mean for America, Israel, and the future of the Middle East?    - - -   Privacy Policy: https://www.dailywire.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Sorry to interrupt everybody's Saturday evening, though if you're watching this, then your evening was probably already interrupted. For those who haven't caught the news, President Trump has ordered an American attack on Iranian nuclear sites. The United States is now directly and officially engaged in the war in Iran. These are the president's words. We have completed our very successful attack on the three nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordo, Natanz, and Esfahan. All planes are now outside of Iran airspace. A full payload of bombs was dropped on the primary site, Fordo. That's the one that everyone's been talking about in the last week.
Starting point is 00:00:38 All planes are safely on their way home. Congratulations to our great American warriors. There is not another military in the world that could have done this. Now is the time for peace. Thank you for your attention to this matter. There are going to be plenty of conservatives who are thrilled about this, who wanted to engage directly with Iran, but there are going to be a lot of conservatives,
Starting point is 00:00:56 maybe even more, who are, not so happy with this news. Because I think there are a lot of people who even though we wanted to take out Iran's nuclear weapons, or rather we didn't want Iran to develop nuclear weapons, we were just kind of hoping the Israelis would take care of it and we would not have to be bogged down in another war in the Middle East. I'm sure President Trump doesn't want to be bogged down in another war in the Middle East. That is why he says, now is the time for peace, don't retaliate.
Starting point is 00:01:21 However, a lot of us, you know, with the memories of Iraq and Afghanistan, say any time the prospect of the U.S. and mid-eastern war comes up, we say, well, this is no good. We don't want it. I get it. I get it. I've expressed those opinions myself. President Trump has expressed those opinions on the campaign trail. However, I think the big takeaway from this decision is no one should be surprised by it. No one should be surprised by it, one, because President Trump, for 10 years now, has said he will not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon. And he said that repeatedly, in his old campaigns, in his most recent campaign. So if people are suggesting that they voted for him
Starting point is 00:02:02 because they didn't want the prospect of war in Iran, then they weren't listening because he said it a lot. He's been very consistent on that. Two, the other reason why this could have been expected is, one, Trump, even in the first term, was not totally a dove. One of his biggest foreign policy moves was to take out the top Iranian general, Kasim Soleimani.
Starting point is 00:02:25 On top of that, he dropped the Moab famously. but he pursued a policy that he calls peace through strength coming from Ronald Reagan. So most of the time he doesn't want to intervene in the affairs around the world, or most of the time he doesn't want to intervene in the wars around the world. But in order to have the credible threat of violence, sometimes you actually have to do it. You can't just bluff all the time. But the third reason that I think people should not be surprised by this attack tonight is. A little line hidden in some of the reporting that's now coming out of the Pentagon about this attack.
Starting point is 00:02:58 Namely, the way the attack was carried out. All day, people who have been tracking this stuff were tracking B2 bombers that were being sent into the Pacific, reportedly into Guam, from Guam, the B2 stealth bombers could fly over Iran and hit the targets. So people have been waiting for this all day. Really, we've been waiting for it for a week and even longer. However, one little line in the reporting says that the weapons that were dropped on the Fordo facility were designed specifically with Fordo in mind. In other words, the United States has been preparing for this military action
Starting point is 00:03:35 a lot longer than the past few weeks and a lot longer than the recent war in Israel and the Middle East and a lot longer than this Trump administration and maybe a lot longer even than the first Trump administration because we discovered the Fordo facility in 2000. 2009 or earlier. It became, it came to the international attention in 2009. The U.S. intelligence probably knew of it much, much earlier than that, which is why, whatever you feel about this, I think people are totally right to have trepidation about the United States becoming directly
Starting point is 00:04:10 involved in another war in the Middle East. I, I share that concern. I don't know that, I'm not one of the people who is jubilant tonight. I'm glad that the American servicemen are now out of Iranian airspace. I'm glad that Iran will not develop a nuclear weapon anytime soon. I'm glad that President Trump launched a successful military operation, but I'm not dancing for joy in the streets here. I have a lot of trepidation about what comes next, which at this point now I think it's safe to conclude the most likely outcome probably is regime change in Iran,
Starting point is 00:04:42 with the Ayatollah down in a bunker somewhere and his chief means of protecting himself blown to smithereens. but I'm not shocked. I'm not surprised. I'm not pulling my hair out or anything like that. I usually am not in politics because if you're paying attention, you see how these things are going. President Trump has been signaling for weeks at this point
Starting point is 00:05:05 that he was prepared to use military action, but this goes deeper than Trump. There are grand strategic operations and objectives that are in place much longer than any one administration. And we can bewail that and we can lament that and we can say that's undemocratic, but that's how nations operate. And so tonight's attack was not just a spur of the moment thing. It's not as the left-wing critics or even maybe some of Trump's critics on the right are going to suggest some, you know, reflexive maneuver because, I don't know, he ate a bad taco bowl at Trump Tower that day and felt like bombing a country. That's not what's going on.
Starting point is 00:05:43 The attack this evening has been in the works for a very, very long time. it is in line, it happens to be in line with President Trump's strategic vision, and it doesn't really come as much surprise. What comes next is another matter. President Trump will be addressing the nation tonight, so that's all for now. We'll see what President Trump has to say momentarily. Hey, sweetie, your mother showed me this Carvana thing for selling the car. I'm going to give it a try. Wish me luck. Me again, I put in the license plate.
Starting point is 00:06:15 It gave me an offer. Unbelievable. Okay, I accepted the offer. They're picking it up Tuesday from the driveway. I haven't even left my chair. It's done. The car is gone. I'm holding a check.
Starting point is 00:06:27 Anyway, Carvana. Give it a whirl. Love you. So good, you'll want to leave a voicemail about it. Sell your car today on... Carvana. Pick up fees may apply.

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